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Only your religion is right. Justification please!?

Midnight Pete

Well-Known Member
"but I know your type."

What is that? The type that has a different opinion then you?

There's a difference between having a different opinion and wanting to fight about it. I have a different opinion than you, but I do not want to fight about it.
 
You want to know how better to insult and ridicule people. You want to abuse others to make you feel better about yourself. You want to scoff. And laugh. And mock.

I don't know you personally, but I know your type.

I see. This is a religious forum, but you are offended if I try to understand how people maintain religiosity. Maybe I should ask in a cooking forum instead?

Wow... I'd like to say I know your type, very but fortunately I don't meet anyone that cynical and judgemental. (you might want to read up some passages on judgement in the bible)
 

Jeremiah

Well-Known Member
There's a difference between having a different opinion and wanting to fight about it. I have a different opinion than you, but I do not want to fight about it.

It seemed more to me that you were the one trying to pick the fight. But if that is how you want to debate then that is, of course, your choice.
 
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I don't need to justify them. I make sense of my existence in the best way I can. If you don't like how I do so - fine.


Why does what I believe elicit a desire for justification when it has no effect whatsoever upon you?

This does not adress the OP. All you are saying with this is that you are content to ignore the points futureplanet brought up. Then you critizize him for daring to post a thread in a religous debate forum.
 

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
Humans create and follow religions. This is known....
When you look at 1 billion Hindus believing a Lord Vishna created trees from a Lotus flower

I don't believe that, and I'm Hindu. Lots of Hindus don't believe that, either. You're describing a Vaishnavite story that not all Vaishnavites believe.

Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterwards, with the creation of the universe. Who knows then whence it has arisen?

Whence this creation has arisen - perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not - the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows - or perhaps he does not know.
-Rig Veda 10:129:6-7

I suggest you take the time to actually study religions.

I don't need to justify my religion being the only one that's right, because I don't believe that.

Whosoever worship Me through whatsoever path, I verily accept and bless them in that way. Men everywhere follow My path.
-Srimad Bhagavad-Gita 4:11
 

jarofthoughts

Empirical Curmudgeon
....because someone can't possibly hold emperical evidence in high esteem and believe in God?

Not if one considers empirical evidence to be the measuring stick by which we define reality, no. There is no empirical evidence that there is such a thing as a god. :)
 

Jeremiah

Well-Known Member
I don't like debating. It gets too adversarial.

"I don't like debating."

It can be frustrating, yes; but it is really worth it.

"It gets too adversarial."

I would only suggest that you try not to take it too personally. Head butting is going to happen here, but at the end of the day it is only debate.
 

Wannabe Yogi

Well-Known Member
I don't believe that, and I'm Hindu. Lots of Hindus don't believe that, either. You're describing a Vaishnavite story that not all Vaishnavites believe.

Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came afterwards, with the creation of the universe. Who knows then whence it has arisen?

Whence this creation has arisen - perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not - the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows - or perhaps he does not know.
-Rig Veda 10:129:6-7


Thank you for quoting Nasadiya The Creation Hymn of Rig Veda. I commented on it but I was to lazy to look it up.
 

Quiddity

UndertheInfluenceofGiants
Not if one considers empirical evidence to be the measuring stick by which we define reality, no. There is no empirical evidence that there is such a thing as a god. :)
There is no emperical evidence there isn't........I know I know....law of silence?

No serious scientist even ponders over using science to answer such a question. Guys like Victor Stinger, Hitchens, Harris, etc. make arguments against the existence of God.......but has nothing to do with science and how emperical evidence is normally used.
 

Alceste

Vagabond
Right. Do you agree to the premise that god either exists or does not exist?
I mean, it would be a major feature of our universe. Surely if he exists, then he exists for everyone and not just you, right?
So this would be an obvious instance in which something is either true or it is not.

Which means that your religion and your faith cannot logically in any way be "true for you".

For a non-believer you're awfully specific and insistent about what it means to believe. Maybe you don't know anything about it, and if you would like to understand how a believer's mind works you should listen and learn rather than explain to the rest of us how it has to be.
 

Alceste

Vagabond
What about the bible verses that tell you to proselytize.

stephenw, much like the vast majority of the world's theists, is not an idolator of the Bible or any other book. So, your question is not very relevant when it comes to his beliefs.
 

Alceste

Vagabond
Not if one considers empirical evidence to be the measuring stick by which we define reality, no. There is no empirical evidence that there is such a thing as a god. :)

Theistic belief is experiential and emotional: you either have religious experiences that theism helps you to explain or you don't. Empiricism doesn't enter into it any more than it enters into the equation when you fall in love or enjoy a piece of art.
 

jarofthoughts

Empirical Curmudgeon
There is no emperical evidence there isn't........I know I know....law of silence?

No serious scientist even ponders over using science to answer such a question.


That is because the concept of god in for instance the Bible is an unfalsifiable proposition and not because they wouldn't be willing to.

Guys like Victor Stinger, Hitchens, Harris, etc. make arguments against the existence of God.......but has nothing to do with science and how emperical evidence is normally used.

Actually it has everything with how science and empirical evidence is used.
In science one relies on empirical evidence to know what is, and if something, say, Faeries, does not have positive evidence of their existence, one logically assumes that no such creature exists until said evidence surfaces.

God, in this respect, is a Faerie. ;)
 

jarofthoughts

Empirical Curmudgeon
I didn't know the existance of God was a scientific question. News to me...


Well, now you know. :D


I wonder what all the theistic well to do scientist think about this...

There are certainly theistic scientists out there and while I don't presume to know how each and every one of them feel about this issue, I get the impression that they keep the two separate, if for no other reason then due to the fact that the proposition of whether there is a god or not is unfalsifiable.

It might be fitting thought to ask them how, exactly, they reconcile these two aspects of their lives, seeing as they are based in two diametrically opposed ways of thinking.
 

jarofthoughts

Empirical Curmudgeon
For a non-believer you're awfully specific and insistent about what it means to believe. Maybe you don't know anything about it, and if you would like to understand how a believer's mind works you should listen and learn rather than explain to the rest of us how it has to be.

I am merely following the textbook definitions of what belief is. I think, if we are to discuss a subject, we should at least agree on what the terms we use actually mean.

Theistic belief is experiential and emotional: you either have religious experiences that theism helps you to explain or you don't. Empiricism doesn't enter into it any more than it enters into the equation when you fall in love or enjoy a piece of art.

The problem is that theism doesn't so much explain various phenomena as it tells you. And what it usually tells you is "god did it" which isn't much of an explanation.
Empiricism enters into everything that in any shape or form influences the physical world, and since I, until evidence to the contrary surfaces, hold that the physical world is all there is, then logically empiricism enters into everything.
The mechanisms of what we call love as well as why we find certain things appealing or not is also being empirically researched and empirical evidence is building up.

So yes, even love, despite how we romantizise it, can be empirically explained.
 

blackout

Violet.
I am merely following the textbook definitions of what belief is. I think, if we are to discuss a subject, we should at least agree on what the terms we use actually mean.


And yet so many of us do NOT subscribe to the same,
or even remotely similar definitions.

So why must we all agree to your "terms"?

You can put limitations on your conversation if you like,
force only certain definitions,
but then do not use that conversation
to draw "blanket" conclusions about the subject at large.

If you narrow the conversation,
you must also narrow your conclusions.

If you want to broaden the conversation,
to include varrying viewpoints
you will then also have to broaden your conclusions.

It is intellectually dishonest to box in a conversation
and then draw broad and sweeping conclusions.

It is intellectually dishonest
to force and limit definition
in order to "prove" your own position.
 
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